Beside her, Jake growled again, but Maggie only heard it distantly. No one else even lookedtoward them.
I can't believe how well I'm taking this, Maggiethought. Something's wrong with me. I'm not hysterical at all.
Her mind had gotten hold of the idea quiteclearly, but there was no reaction in her body, no terrible feeling in her stomach. An instant later itswept over her, exactly what she'd been afraid of. A wash of adrenaline that made her skin tinglepainfully and a horrible sensation of falling in her stomach. A numbness that started in her cheeksand spread to her lips and jaw.
Oh, please, she thought stupidly. Please let it notbe true. Maybe he's just hurt.That would be allright. He had an accident and he's hurt-but notdead.
But if he were hurt her mother wouldn't bestanding there screaming. She would be on her way to the hospital, and nobody could stop her. So thatdidn't work, and Maggie's mind, darting and wheel ing like a frightened little animal, had to go back
to Please don't let this be true.
Strangely, at that moment, it seemed as if theremight be some way to make it not true. If sheturned around and sneaked back to her bedroombefore anyone saw her; if she got into bed and pulled the blankets over her head and shut hereyes...
But she couldn't leave her mother screaming like this.
Just then the screams died down a little. Her father was speaking in a voice that didn't sound at all like his voice. It was a sort of choked whisper."But why didn't you tell us you were going climbing? If you left on Halloween then it's been sixdays. We didn't even know our son was missing...."
"I'm sorry." Sylvia was whispering, too. "Wedidn't expect to be gone long. Miles's roommatesknew we were going, but nobody else. It was justa spur-of-themoment thingwe didn't have classeson Halloween and the weather was so nice andMiles said, hey, let's go out to Chimney Rock. And we justwent...."
Hey, let's go.He used to say that kind of thing to me, Maggie thought with a strange, dazed twinge.But not since he met Sylvia.
The male sheriff was looking at Maggie's father."You weren't surprised that you hadn't heard from your son since last Friday?"
"No. He's gotten so independent since he movedout to go to college. One of his roommates calledthis afternoon to ask if Miles was here-but hedidn't say that Miles had been gone for almost aweek. I just thought he'd missed a class orsomething...." Maggie's father's voice trailed off.
The sheriff nodded. "Apparently his roommatesthought he'd taken a little unauthorized vacation,"he said.
"They got worried enough to call us tonight-but by then a ranger had already pickedup Sylvia."
Sylvia was crying. She was tall but willowy, fragile looking. Delicate. She had shimmering hair sopale it was almost silvery and clear eyes the exactcolor of wood violets. Maggie, who was short andround faced, with fox-colored hair and brown eyes,had always envied her.
But not now. Nobody could look at Sylvia nowwithout feeling pity.
"It happened that first evening. We started up,but then the weather started turning bad and weturned around. We were moving pretty fast." Sylviastopped and pressed a fist against her mouth.
"It's kind of a risky time of year for climbing," the female sheriff began gently, but Sylvia shookher head.
And she was right, Maggie thought. It wasn't thatbad. Sure, it rained here most of the fall, but sometimes what the weather people called a high pressure cell settled in and the skies stayed blue for amonth. All hikers knew that.
Besides, Miles washt scared of weather. He wasonly eighteen but he'd done lots of hard climbs in Washington's Olympic and Cascade ranges. He'dkeep climbing all winter, getting alpine experience in snow and storms.
Sylvia was going on, her voice getting more jerkybreathless. "Miles was...he'd had the flu aweek before and he wasn't completely over it. Buthe seemed okay, strong. It happened when we were rappelling down. He was laughing and joking andeverything.... I never thought he might be tired enough to makea mistake...." Her voice wavered turned into a ragged sob and the ranger puthis arm around her.
Something inside Maggie froze. Amistake?Miles?
She was prepared to hear aboutasudden avalanche or a piece of equipment failing. Even Sylviafalling and knocking Miles off. But Miles makinga mistake?
Maggie stared at Sylvia, and suddenly somethingin the pitiful figure bothered her.
There was something odd about that delicatelyflushed face and those tear-drenched violet eyes. Itwas all too perfect, too tragic, as if Sylvia werean Academy award-winning actress doing a famousscene-and enjoying it.
"I don't know howit happened," Sylvia was whispering. "The anchor was good. We should have hada back-up anchor, but we were in a hurry. And he must have ...oh, God, there must have beensomething wrong with his harness. Maybe thebuckle wasn't fastened right, or the carabiners might have been upside down...:'
No.
Suddenly Maggie's feelings crystalized. It was asif everything came into focus at once.
That's impossible. That's wrong.
Miles was too good. Smart and strong and anamazing technical climber. Confident but careful. Maggie only hoped she'd be that good someday.
No way he'd buckle his harness wrong, or clip his 'biners upside down. No matter how sick hewas. In fact, no way he'd go without a back-upanchor. I'mthe one who tries to do things like that,and then he yells at me that if I'm not careful I'm going to have an adventure.
Miles doesn't.
So it meant Sylvia was lying.
The thought came to Maggie on a little wave ofshock. It made her feel as if she were suddenlyspeeding backwards, or as if the room were receding from her very fast.
But why?Why would Sylvia make up such a terrible story? It didn't make any sense.
Sylvia had a hand half covering her eyes now."I looked for him, but ...there was icefall...a crevasse..."
No body. She's saying there's no body .